(CP) A Muslim woman in eastern Uganda added poison to the food of her husband, a former Islamic teacher who converted to Christianity about a week earlier, after noticing him praying in the name of Christ, according to a report.

Hiire Sadiki, 56, who put his faith in Christ on March 27, is recovering in a hospital in Butaleja District, Morning Star News reported.

Sadiki, who is from Masjidi Uthuman in Nawanjofu village, was poisoned on April 2, as he had declined to observe the Islamic rituals of Ramadan and his wife noticed him praying in the name of Christ.

"She questioned me because of the mode of my praying. I told her that I had believed in Issa [Jesus]," the victim was quoted as saying from his hospital bed.

He said he put his faith in Christ after several months of discussions with a Christian pastor.

His pastor, who took him to a hospital, said Sadiki suffered convulsions and vomiting after eating. "As we arrived at the hospital, his condition worsened. He started having diarrhea with blood, nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain."

The pastor added that he rang his wife. "As I began asking about the sheikh and introducing myself, she was so annoyed and started abusing me for converting her husband. She said she did not want to be identified with him because he had become an infidel, and that she was leaving him and going back to her people, that her husband deserved death for forsaking Islam, and that she didn't want to relate with an infidel."

Sadiki's wife has left the town with their three children, ages 16, 10 and 6, the pastor said.

While most people in Uganda are Christian, some regions in the country have higher concentrations of Muslims.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project estimates that about 11.5% of Uganda's population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.

"Radical Islam's influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam," a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet notes.

"Despite the risks, Evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians."

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